


Into The Woods

by aelandair



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Camping, Established Relationship, Ghosts, Humor, Kissing, M/M, Modern AU, Terrible Ghost Stories told by Poe Dameron, benarmie, but not really, failed attempts at getting laid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 16:03:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19704751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelandair/pseuds/aelandair
Summary: Armitage only agrees to go on a camping trip with Ben and his friends because he wants to spend some time with Ben. They never get to be alone, and this is the perfect opportunity to take their relationship one step further. Sadly, things don't quite go according to plan.





	Into The Woods

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the first board of the Kylux XoXo Summer Fest! The prompts I chose are Bite/Ghost/Fire.

Armitage only realises that he hates camping when it’s already much too late. 

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, really, because he’s never been a fan of nature. He doesn’t like all the insects constantly crawling over him, and he doesn’t like all the plants and the dirt clinging to his clothes, and all the other disgusting things one might encounter in the wilderness. Logically, he knows all of those things, and he also knows that he should steer clear of trees in the summer because of his allergies, but when Ben proposed joining his other friends for their little camping trip, Armitage still said yes. He’s only in misery because he has such a hard time saying no to Ben, and he already knows it’s going to be the end of him one day.

Truth be told, he’s only tagging along because he knows this is the only opportunity he and Ben will get to spend the night together for a long while. Brendol is almost always home, and even if Ben’s parents aren’t around, his uncle comes by to check on him. They have not once been unsupervised for a whole night the entire time they’ve been dating. So when Armitage saw an opportunity to finally get things going, he took it. Though they’ve only been together for a relatively short time, he already feels like he has been waiting for ages to finally move things along a little bit. And maybe he has. Considering how many years he spent pining for Ben before he finally confessed, he has truly been waiting for a long time. He just wants something to finally happen between them. The details aren’t even important, he doesn’t care what exactly they’re going to do, he just wants to get off with Ben, and he wants to do it soon. 

They won’t be alone at their homes anytime soon. And Armitage doesn’t particularly feel like waiting much longer to lose his virginity. Coming on this damned camping trip was really the only choice he had. 

Now, he is having serious regrets. He has come to the conclusion that camping is very much not his thing, and that spending so much time around Rey and her little group of friends is going to drive him insane. They all have so much energy, and they’re all loud and happy and touchy all the time, and he is _not_ into it. 

Technically, he could just pack up his things and go home; the woods they’re camped out in are only a half hour walk from town. But he has a plan. He has ambitions, and he takes pride in that. No matter how many bug bites he's going to get, no matter how many campfire songs he has to sing, he's going to stay. He'll just wait until he can drag Ben off to their tent, and then he's going to lose his virginity, and it's going to be amazing.

"Do you all know about the group of teens who died out here?", Poe Dameron suddenly asks, pulling Armitage out of his increasingly elaborate fantasies about his impending deflowering and back into a much more bleak present. 

They're all sitting on blankets or tree logs, arranged around a small fire that probably isn't completely legal. While they've been roasting marshmallows and bread over the flames, Poe has been telling all kinds of absurd horror stories to scare them. Most of the stories are more dumb than creepy, Armitage thinks. It's tedious to listen to them, and he has to make a conscious effort not to roll his eyes now that Poe is getting ready to launch into another one. 

Finn, who's sitting next to Poe, does roll his eyes, fondly, and snorts. "I'm sure no one died here", he says, sounding both amused and exasperated. 

"Don't laugh at me, Finn, it's true", Poe insists.

"Tell us about those allegedly dead teens, then", Rey encourages him. She sounds like she's teasing, but it's hard to tell, because her entire mouth is stuffed full with marshmallows. It's appalling to look at, so Armitage turns away with a frown. 

She shouldn't have said that. Poe's whole face lights up, and Armitage wants to shake Rey for basically giving him permission to tell this stupid story. Poe can't be stopped now. The devilish smile on his face tells Armitage that much. 

"Alright, listen up everyone", Poe says. He leans forward conspiratively, looks at all of them in turn, first Finn, then Rey, Armitage, Ben, Paige and finally Rose. 

"Twenty years ago, a group of friends lived in our town. They went to our high school, and were our age. One day, they decided to go camping in these woods. Just a fun little trip. They set up right here, at this clearing. The weekend was spent partying, they had the time of their lives. But when the weekend was over, they didn't come home. Their parents started to worry, but thought the friends had just forgotten the time. But then a day passed, and another, and still no one returned. The parents alerted the police. Soon, everyone was looking for these teens. They searched the entire woods, and eventually came across the tents and bags, but the friends were nowhere to be found." 

Poe waits, looks at them again, like he's trying to build momentum for the finale. It's useless. This story is awful. 

"The friends never returned home. To this day, they remain missing, and no one knows what happened to them. Their ghosts are rumored to still haunt this clearing, and murder everyone who dares to venture here." 

No one says anything for a few seconds. Then they all erupt into disbelieving shouts, laughter, and booing. Armitage finally allows himself to roll his eyes and scoff, because honestly, this is one of the worst ghost stories he has ever heard in his life. And that really is something, considering Poe has been telling them these trashy tales for most of the evening now. 

"I call bullshit!", Ben bellows where he's seated next to Armitage. 

"What? Why?", Poe asks incredulously. "It really happened!" 

“No, it didn't. It doesn't make sense. At first you said these kids died here, and then you said they disappeared. If they disappeared, how do you know they’re dead?” Ben raises his eyebrows, his entire posture challenging Poe. 

“What else could have happened to them?”

“Literally everything! If they’d died, someone would have found their bodies, right? But maybe they just decided to fuck off and go somewhere else, you know, run away from home. And they didn’t want to be found or something. But if nothing was found, how do you even know they died here? There’s no proof to back up this story!” 

Armitage feels a smile creep onto his face. Hearing Ben debate like this, using logical arguments to prove Poe is trying to fuck with them all is really kind of hot. He likes it when Ben gets his head out off his own ass long enough to show off he’s actually intelligent. It’s one of the most attractive things about Ben; how perceptive he can be, even though he rarely makes the effort to show it.

“You’re no fun, Ben!”, Poe says, pouting. He looks around at the others expectantly, but they all shake their heads, wearing expressions between pitying and apologetic on their faces. 

“Sorry, man, but he’s right. This story doesn’t make any sense. Also, if something like this really happened here, we would have heard of it. Everyone in town would always be talking about it, because nothing exciting ever happens”, Rey explains. 

Poe flips her off, and she shrugs and then laughs. 

“Okay, if you all hate my stories, why doesn’t someone else tell one?”

Again, Poe eyes all of them. Rose raises her hand unexpectedly. 

“I know a story! It’s really creepy, though. Much creepier than any of the stuff Poe told us.” 

She ignores his indignant shout and clears her throat. 

“The story begins with a young boy…”

Armitae zones out almost as soon as she starts telling her story. They’re going to sit around the fire for a long time and listen to these stupid ghost stories. He already knows that. But it’s not entirely bad. The fire is pleasantly warm, as is the night air, and Ben’s body beside him. Maybe he’ll just enjoy that for now, and entertain himself with thoughts of what might happen later. That will keep him warm for sure. While everyone is listening to Rose, Armitage shimmies closer to Ben, leaning against him, and grabs his hand. Ben jumps a bit at the unexpected contact, but then realaxes immediately. He tangles their fingers together, and smiles at Armitage, making his heart beat faster. Armitage looks up at him, and smiles back. 

\---

It takes hours for the evening to finally wind down. By the time the fire has burned down and everyone retreats to their tents, it’s well past midnight. Armitage has worked himself into a frenzy over the past hours, constantly thinking about what will happen when they’re finally alone, and even though he enjoyed himself, now he’s just frisky and kind of desperate. He would be embarrassed about it, if he weren’t so damn excited. 

He and Ben share a tent. When they were setting up their little campsite, Armitage had tried to strategically place it farther away from the others, but because this clearing is tiny, he mostly failed. They’re as isolated as it’s gonna get, which is not very. It only takes him five big steps to get to the next tent. They’ll just have to be quiet, so nobody overhears anything. He can do that. 

Armitage crawls into the tent first, Ben right behind him. They sit side by side, rummaging through their bags and changing into their sleep clothes before cuddling together under the heap of blankets and unzipped sleeping bags they arranged on the inflatable mattress. 

Finally, they’re alone. Armitage can feel his heart in his throat, the nerves drumming in his chest, excitement shooting through his veins, and Ben hasn’t even touched him yet. He takes a deep breath, trying to get his shit together. If he wants something to happen, he has to work for it.

“I’m so glad we’re finally away from all the others”, he says at last. 

In the darkness, he can barely make out Ben’s face, but he can see enough to know that Ben is looking at him. They’re lying so close together Armitage can feel Ben’s breath on his face as he laughs. 

“I get what you mean”, Ben mumbles. He sounds like he’s smiling. “I like them all, but they can be kind of exhausting to be around.” 

Armitage nods, makes an agreeable sound. 

“Also, I like spending my time with you a lot more.” 

At Ben’s words, Armitage feels his chest flutter. A blush creeps onto his cheeks, and he really can’t do anything but lean over and kiss Ben. 

Ben kisses him back immediately, moving his lips languidly just like he knows Armitage likes, and rolls on top of Armitage without much preamble. Ben’s body his big and heavy and hot, but Armitage likes it, a lot, and he groans into Ben’s mouth, giving his plush lower lip a brief lick before pulling away. 

“Do you want to-”, he begins to ask, but stops to gather his thoughts. He can’t believe he’s already breathless. One kiss from Ben has him reeling, completely lost in the best kind of way. 

“Do you want to do stuff?” 

He doesn’t know what else to say, because he doesn’t even know what precisely he wants, but Ben seems to understand what he means anyways, because his eyes get huge and his mouth falls open, and then he nods excitedly. Armitage smiles, and before he can get another word out, Ben is kissing him again, hard and messy and desperate. 

It’s all tongue and teeth now, more sloppy than usual, but Armitage loves it all the same. He nibbles on Ben’s lip, tastes the insides of his mouth, and Ben lowers his entire body, presses himself against Armitage as closely as possible, and grinds their hips together in a somewhat unpractised motion. The contact has them both grunting into the kiss, breathing heavily against each other. 

Ben breaks away first, gasping and red faced, and moves down, pressing kisses everywhere he can reach: on Armitage's cheek, his jawline, the soft spot beneath his ear, his neck. He stays there, mouthing on Armitage’s skin, because Ben knows how much he likes it, how sensitive he is there. 

Armitage tangles one hand in Ben’s hair and strokes his back with the other, feeling the muscles move under his skin with every movement. He’s trying to keep quiet, he really is, because their friends are close and probably still awake and if he starts moaning they’ll hear him, but it’s increasingly difficult. Ben’s lips and teeth on his skin are absolutely heavenly, and his mind goes blissfully empty, every passing second clouding his thoughts with more desire for Ben. He’s also hard, almost painfully so, and desperate to do something about it, to feel Ben’s hot skin against his own, and- 

Suddenly, Ben bites down on his neck, _hard_.

He flinches and shoves Ben away almost on instinct. 

“Ow! What the fuck, Ben!” 

His hand goes to rub at the stinging in his neck, and he looks up at Ben incredulously. Ben at least looks embarrassed about it. 

“Sorry”, Ben mumbles, rubbing his neck sheepishly. “I heard a noise. Didn’t expect it, I guess it scared me a bit.” 

Armitage furrows his brow. He didn’t hear a noise, but maybe that’s because he wasn’t really paying attention to anything other than Ben’s mouth. 

“It won’t happen again”, Ben promises. He looks at Armitage with these pretty eyes of his, red lower lip stuck out in an almost-pout, and really, Armitage can’t be angry for long when Ben looks at him like this. 

“I should hope so”, he mumbles. 

Then, he wraps his arms around Ben’s neck, and tugs him down again, into another kiss. It’s so good, just like all their other kisses, and Armitage is about to get completely lost in it, when Ben flinches again. 

This time, he leans away from Armitage, sits up and looks around the tent almost frantically. 

“Ben. What the hell is going on?” 

Ben doesn’t say anything. He keeps looking around the tent, as if he’s searching for something, with wide eyes. A sinking feeling settles in Armitage’s stomach. Maybe he miscalculated. Maybe this isn’t the right time after all. 

“Look, Ben, if you don’t want to do anything, we don’t have to. Just tell me what’s going on.” 

He sits up too. All the heat has suddenly drained out of the tent. Ben looks conflicted and still doesn’t say anything. Then he bites his lip, looks off to the side and takes a deep breath. 

“I do want to… you know, have sex or whatever. But, uh, I’m… uh, I’m kind of scared of these noises I heard, and that, uhm, someone might hear us, or see us, or whatever.” 

Armitage nearly chokes when Ben says the word sex like it’s nothing, but then again, maybe it is. The rest of his sentence takes a moment to register, and then Armitage stares at Ben, and stares a bit more, and then it finally clicks. 

“Ben…”, he starts, unsure how to go on. “Are you… are you scared of ghosts?” 

There. He said it. And Ben doesn’t even have to answer. The look on his face is more than telling. 

Armitage can’t believe this is truly happening. Most of all, he’s confused. He didn’t realise Ben is scared of ghosts, he never said anything about it before, and he was pretty vocal about what a load of bullshit Poe’s stories were. 

“But. Ben, ghosts aren’t real. No one haunts these woods. You said so yourself.” 

Ben groans miserably, his whole body slumping forwards. 

“I know what I said. And I still think Poe was just shitting us when he told us about these kids. But what if it’s true, Armie? I can’t lose my virginity while a ghost might possibly be watching! If we did it now, I would just think about ghosts the whole time, and that would kill my boner instantly, and nobody would have a good time, the ghost included. Or, what if we did it, and we’d be right in the middle of it, and then some stupid ghost kills us, and then our bodies will be found, still naked, and everyone will know what we were up to, and it’d be embarrassing as fuck. I don’t want to die naked!” 

Ben has talked himself into a frenzy, his words so fast they’re slurring together, and when he’s finally done, he’s slightly breathless. Armitage can’t do anything but silently stare at him. That was… a lot. His boyfriend has apparently completely lost it. He doesn’t quite know what to say, because this entire situation is so surreal. Never in his life did he imagine he’d get cockblocked by a ghost. For all he likes to be prepared, he has no plan of action for this. 

He knows that he should comfort Ben, because Ben looks downright pitiful, or maybe he should argue that this is stupid, because ghosts don’t exist, for god’s sake. 

But right as he’s about to open his mouth, he hears it too: Leaves rustling, branches snapping, a soft thump, and what sounds like a breeze rustling their tent. 

Ben honest to god squeaks, and Armitage would laugh at him for it, if he weren’t so busy jumping slightly himself. His heart suddenly thunders in his chest, but not because of the arousal he felt mere minutes ago. Ben is right: The noise is scary. Very much so. He feels goosebumps raise on his skin, and hates himself for it. Ghosts aren’t real, he knows this. But the noises sound weird, and they’re very close to their tent, and all of their friends are camped out in the other direction, and now Ben has planted all these ideas into his brain, and maybe he’s right and there really is a ghost out here. 

Fuck. Armitage doesn’t want to die a virgin, he really doesn’t want to. But Ben was right: He also really doesn’t want to have sex with a ghost watching. Logically, he knows it’s probably just an animal, but he can’t help being scared. 

“Ok, you’re right, we should definitely wait”, he says at last, his voice coming out tense. 

He’s slightly disappointed, but he knows that neither of them could relax enough to actually make this good. There will be other opportunities for sure. 

Ben nods, almost relieved. They both stay sitting for a moment, looking around the tent and listening. When the noise doesn’t come again, they lie down and bury under their blankets. 

Even though he can’t hear anything right now, Armitage can still feel his heart beating in his chest like that of a frightened animal, and Ben’s labored breathing betrays his own fear. He cuddles up as close to Ben as he can manage, and Ben tangles their legs together, grips Armitage’s hand and almost crushes it between his sweaty palms. Armitage doesn’t care. At least this way, with Ben so close they’re nearly one, he can feel safe. 

They stay awake for way too long, listening for anything unusual outside their tent. When no more noises come, they finally manage to fall into a fitful sleep, tangled together. 

\---

Armitage wakes up sweating and crushed under Ben’s entire upper body. Somehow, during the night, Ben has managed to sprawl completely across Armitage’s chest, and with this additional human blanket, Armitage is absolutely boiling. He also needs to piss. 

Carefully, he disentangles himself from Ben, and leaves the tent without making any noises to wake him. He takes a short trip deeper into the woods, away from their camp, and relieves himself. This is possibly the thing he hates most about camping. He already knows he’ll never go camping again when this weekend is over, and honestly, now that he knows he won’t get laid, he can’t wait to finally go home. 

The camp is still mostly quiet when he returns, everyone else still asleep, except for Poe, who’s just crawling out of the tent he shares with Finn and Rey, all rumpled shirt and messy bedhead. He spots Armitage and waves at him with one of his charming, ever present smiles. Armitage doesn’t get how he does it, being so bright all the time. 

“Hi Armitage! Did you and Ben sleep well?”, he asks, sounding way too chipper for someone who just woke up. 

Armitage grumbles something vaguely affirmative, not wanting to elaborate, before a thought strikes him. 

“Hey, Poe? Did you hear any weird noises last night?” 

He feels stupid asking, but he needs to know if he and Ben just shared a strange hallucination or if there was really something out there. Or maybe it was one of the others, trying to play a prank on them. 

Poe frowns, thinks for a second, and then shrugs. 

“No, sorry, I don’t think I did”, he says, and he sounds genuinely confused, so Armitage decides to believe him. Somehow, that makes last night’s noises even more frightening.

“Why are you asking?”, Poe asks. 

Now Armitage shrugs. “No specific reason.” He doesn’t really want to tell Poe about what happened last night. It seems somehow private, how he and Ben protected each other from whatever was out there. Also, he knows Poe would laugh at him if he told him he got scared of a potential ghost, and he really can’t deal with that this early in the morning. 

Poe looks at him like he doesn’t believe him, though, his eyes scanning Armitage’s reddening face, then dropping down for a second. Suddenly, a huge, shark-like grin spreads across Poe’s face, and he whistles, low and appreciative. 

“Ah, I get it. Did you and Ben have fun?” 

Armitage feels his brow furrow in confusion. Fun? What? 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, he says. 

Poe laughs. “Sure thing, buddy.” Then he wanders off into the woods without another word, leaving Armitage slightly annoyed and definitely clueless. 

He crawls back into the tent to get dressed for the day, and finds Ben awake. When he spots Armitage, his whole face lights up with a smile that makes Armitage positively melt. 

“Good morning”, Ben says happily, pulling Armitage to him for a brief kiss. 

“Morning”, Armitage mumbles back. 

Ben lets him go to take a sip out of his water bottle, and Armitage settles down. 

“Do you know what’s really weird?”, he asks. 

Ben makes a questioning sound, encouraging him to go on. 

“I just asked Poe if he heard anything weird last night, and he said he didn’t, and then he looked at me really funny and asked if we had fun, and then he just wandered off. I have absolutely no clue what he meant”, Armitage tells Ben while he pulls his sleep shirt over his head and puts a new one on for the day. 

“Hm, that _is_ weird.” 

Ben looks at him with a frown, head tilted to the side. Then his gaze suddenly turns panicked, and his entire face gets so red it looks like it might explode. 

“Oh, fuck, Armie, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize, fuck, sorry…”, he starts to babble. 

Armitage can’t make sense of any of it. 

“Why are you sorry? What’s going on, Ben?” 

Ben falls silent, and points at his neck hesitantly. 

Armitage raises his fingers, touches his own neck, still confused. He can’t imagine what about his neck would lead Poe to the assumption that he had fun last night, and he doesn’t get why Ben is apologizing, and- 

Oh. Oh, _no_. 

He scrambles for his phone, all confusion gone, and opens up the front camera as soon as he gets his hands on it, to confirm what he thinks he’s going to find. And sure enough, there it is. 

There’s a gigantic hickey, right where Ben bit him last night. 

He feels the blood rush to his face. Fuck. It's so huge, there's no way he can hide it. 

With a frustrated groan he throws his phone away and buries his head in his hands, while Ben starts apologizing again. Right in this moment, he hates absolutely every force in the universe that conspired to put him in this situation. He didn’t even get laid, and now everyone is going to see the bite mark on his neck and assume he did, when in reality, his boyfriend was so scared of some fucking ghost he accidentally bit him. 

Armitage was already fed up with this camping trip, but now? He knows it’s about to get impossibly, infinitely worse. And there’s not a thing he can do about it. Now, he almost wishes the ghost had killed him last night, if only to save him from the absolute embarrassment he’s going to have to face. 

He officially hates camping. And he will definitely never do it again.

**Author's Note:**

> Will Armitage get another opportunity to get rid of all his sexual frustration? Is there really a ghost in the woods? Who knows!
> 
> You can find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/aelandair).


End file.
